Pastor Maldonado insists that he could have finished as high as second in Abu Dhabi, had he not been hampered by a KERS problem.

The Venezuelan, who also survived a brush with Mark Webber that sent the Aussie into a spin, eventually finished fifth. It was his first top six finish in F1 other than his Barcelona victory.

“We had a problem with the KERS after the safety car,” he told this blog. “The pace was fantastic, but without KERS, it was impossible. Apart from that you have two DRS zones, so it was impossible to fight without it. But I recovered the race and I managed to open the gap against Kobayashi.

“I was quite worried about that, because there was another safety car, and I thought I would get passed by everyone. But I managed to open the gap again and do a very strong pace in the last stint, even without the KERS and with some small gearbox problem.

“I’m very disappointed, we missed a good podium because the car was so competitive. It was an easy second for us, because Fernando was already behind us and our pace was much stronger than Ferrari, for sure.”

Regarding the clash with Webber, he said: “He closed my line. I was on the inside of the corner, and maybe if he stayed on the outside he would get the position from me. But he tried to close my line. I’m disappointed for him because he was doing quite a good race, and maybe he didn’t look for me on the inside.”